Hot answers tagged payments
81
Non paying customers are always hard to deal with. If I were you I'd have taken her profile off your site completely until she paid her bill.
The absolute last thing I would have done is put something on the website saying that their profile was unavailable due to non-payment, and if I were your client, I'd have been furious about this.
After all, we're ...
49
I really have to side with your (ex) customer. You can't expect to be able to put up a message like that on her account without things getting ugly. You are chasing a person for $60? What in the world are you thinking. Just remove her listing (DO NOT put anything derogatory like you did - that is horrendous.)
Just move on. Customers pay up front or ...
21
As a freelancer, here are some solutions I've had entrepreneurs offer me.
Promise lots of money to the freelancers, but don't pay. (Drawback: this is illegal.)
Offer a big reward "when the project goes big". This is like offering a share in the company, but you don't have to set a value on the project. Only gullible freelancers fall for this.
Ask for this ...
19
The answer depends on what you sold them. A software product? Consulting services? SAS? And how you sold it. If by PO, I assume you have a copy of the PO and its terms?
For our software products we have stiff late payment fees (spelled out in advance). If they exceed 45 days without paying, we terminate their software license. (Which means they are using ...
17
Unless I missed something, no one here has mentioned PayPal Pro. It's just like a merchant account - you get a virtual terminal and API to charge cards as your company name. Customers never know PayPal is involved. It costs $30/month and the transaction fees range from 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD. See ...
14
A merchant account is an account that allows businesses to accept payments by debit or credit cards. A merchant account is always linked to a business bank account. Credit card payments go into the business bank account and refunds, charge backs, and fees come out of it. A merchant account requires an agreement between a business and a merchant bank for the ...
14
Walk away. Let's go.
You have already spent way too much time and energy on this.
Having clients that don't pay is part of doing business. From shoplifting at the convenience story to websites that claim they didn't really use your code -- we have all been burned. We walk away, we let go.
We have all had clients who have "done us wrong" It was unfair. ...
14
In short: don't. If you can't afford $40/hr, just buy some pre-made templates for $20-40/theme. Places like ThemeForest can get you website designs, I'm sure there are options for logos (LogoDesignWorks)
13
I've been in similar situations.
Situation 1: I had an offer to join YCombinator company. I got the offer shortly after they were accepted to YCominator, but before they had a product, customers, or any other funding. I negotiated the offer to ~23% of the company (which was an equal share as the founders) and zero salary (not even living expenses).
...
12
Why not offer standard trade terms to your larger clients?
The industry standard for physical goods is 2/10 net 30 (read: two ten net thirty).
The way this works is that the buyer receives a 2% discount if the payment is made within ten days, but if the buyer declines to pay within 10 days, all of the payment must be made within 30 days.
The reason ...
12
Whatever you do, never ever publish derogatory information about your customer's financial position or any billing dispute. At least in the U.S., this is an illegal debt collection practice and will likely get you sued.
Simply discontinue the service and walk away from the client. End of story.
11
cover my expenses but not to actually pay me or offer any equity
What's that -- they pay you a salary which, after tax, just matches your minimum living expenses?
Well, it doesn't matter, this deal is IMHO still broken beyond repair. Either you are
a co-founder, in which case foregoing salary can be reasonable (because you get major equity)
or your ...
10
While the cost of a PayPal transaction may appear to be low to your firm, you are also taking a risk on each PayPal transaction. The PayPal transaction might cost 1.5% - 2% of the total transaction in fees, but you also risk losing the entire $700 in a charge back. You need to consider that in your calculations!
In addition, many businesses do not have ...
10
You could try Bitcoin
Essentially, your authors provide you with a Bitcoin address (trivial for them to acquire using any free and open source Bitcoin client) and you keep track of whatever they have earned in your local currency as part of your business.
When the time comes to make payment you buy some bitcoins on an exchange at the current spot rate and ...
9
Generally speaking, if your customers are going to be paying with personal finances, I recommend sticking with PayPal. People are more apt to trust putting their credit card info into PayPal than your startup, and it's a pretty familiar process for many.
However, if you're targeting businesses, then I would highly recommend just going with a merchant ...
9
All of this depends on the wording of your agreement.
Let me make a couple assumptions:
Your agreement did not include a clear process for cancellation
Your agreement was with a company, not you as a person
The amount of the retainer was less than $10,000 (or so)
That you are located in the United States.
That the agreement had an agreed upon ...
9
You're making the mistake of not thinking like your customer. Right now, you're approaching the problem from the position of "how can we stuff our bank out the fastest?" but you should be asking "what is most appropriate for our customers?".
When a potential customer is deciding whether to subscribe to a service or not, they're considering ROI and risks:
...
8
Here's another factor to consider:
After you open a merchant account, you should keep PayPal as a payment option. Many people are familiar with PayPal and are comfortable having PayPal as intermediary. I often use PayPal even when a credit card is an option because I don't like to give out my credit card number if I can avoid it.
Part of making it easy ...
8
It's always best to stay focused as close to your core business as possible, especially when you're first starting up. If the costs associated with outsourcing your subscription/payment processing is not too costly, it would likely be your best bet.
You'll have enough challenges and headaches when launching your business, that the last thing you'll want ...
8
First, you need a formal written payment policy. Without that policy you have no legal options to enforce payment.
I can not figure out what the problem is with options 1) or 2) above. Acepting credit cards will cost you a minor amount of each transaction, but increase your cash flow and remove the entire process of chasing your customer down for payment. ...
7
The thing I like the most about handing the customer off to PayPal for payment is that if they are not an existing PayPal member, the default option is for a credit card payment with an option to create a PayPal account. The page they land on has the full credit card payment form right there.
If it were the opposite and they had to click through a PayPal ...
7
International vs US Domestic markets are fundamentally of different magnitude.
Not sure who your target audience is and whether they face the same issues your Software addresses.
The following may be some reaons:
Target Audience : Are they facing same issues you are trying to solve?
Visibility : Do you have some kind of advertisement/marketing in other ...
7
There's lots of places that run credit cards (and even take PayPal as an option).
Avangate and Plimus are both very easy, flexible, and consistently rated highly in shoot-outs.
7
There are two main ways an LLC owner can obtain money from the LLC:
Withdrawals: This is money distributed to the LLC owners after net profits have been calculated. You need to show a profit to take a withdrawal from the LLC. How withdrawals are taxed depends on whether the LLC is taxed as a partnership or a corporation (see more on that below).
Guaranteed ...
7
You can use a service such as CheddarGetter.com to simplify your transactions for subscriptions, but you will quickly learn that its best to build your own subscription system. It's easy, it gives you ultimate control, and worthwhile doing versus services that exists.
you will need:
1. Merchant account
2. Gateway ( I highly recommend Authorize.net)
3. A ...
7
First, if you and the deadbeat customer are in the same state, I'd suggest you check your state's laws on small claims court. Some states allow small claims cases for as much as $25,000. Small claims courts are informal, and it's really easy and inexpensive to sue through them. Nolo Press has good information on how to sue in small claims court.
If that ...
7
There are two separate approaches to reducing credit card fraud. The first approach requires the collection of credit card and purchaser data, and then a review of that data. Your order pages should always require the customer CVV code, collect their IP address, and their phone number and billing address. While your credit card processor might accept a ...
7
There has been some confusion between myself, YC and the company.
The upshot is: Companies should not make this kind of offer. [They didn't btw. My worries were the result of a late night conversation in a bar not a formal interview :-) ]. It is not how the YC program is supposed to work.
7
@pula, its $60 let it go, you can do more damage to your brand and your product fighting over the $60 than you can salvage by being the bigger person.
Publishing the listing as not paid is a very bad move ... who is going to place advertising with you in the future if they risk that happening to them ... regardless of the back history and who was right or ...
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